airtory.pages.dev

Pamela jelimo biography

    •

Pamela Jelimo is the 2008 Golden Girl of Athletics

At just 18 years of age and in only her first season on the international circuit, Pamela Jelimo won the 2008 ÅF Golden League $1 million jackpot outright, became the first ever Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal and set five World Junior records and four African senior records. And this is just the beginning…

Extract from IAAF Yearbook 2008

Lord Sebastian Coe was watching from the main stand of the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels on the night that the 2008 ÅF Golden League reached its climax. He was in his element, following the sport he loves, and witnessing another dominant performance from Pamela Jelimo at 800m, the distance at which Coe held the World record for 18 years. Coe is in charge of the 2012 Olympic Games in London and Jelimo looks destined to be a seasoned global star by then.

How different that would be from her first Olympic journey. In four months Jelimo went from unknown runner to Olympic gold medallist. By the end of the season, with the $1m Golden League jackpot to back up her Olympic title, t

    •

Pamela Jelimo: Story of First Woman To Win Kenya Olympic Gold

Despite her short-lived athletics career, that beamed with hope, Pamela Jelimo cemented her name in Kenya's history books.

No one knew Jelimo before her meteoric rise in 2007. However, through hard work, commitment and determination she became a household name, not only in Kenya but also in other corners of the globe.

Jelimo produced a sparkling performance at the 2008 Beijing Games to become Kenya’s first ever female Olympic gold medalist. Marathon legend Catherine Nyambura Ndereba came close twice at the 2002 and 2004 Olympic Games, bagging a silver medal in both editions.

Also Read: How Kenyan Boxer Plans to Silence His Wife at Commonwealth Games

At the age of 18, Jelimo ran one of the fastest 800m races on August 18, 2008 to win Kenya’s maiden women’s gold in the discipline. 

She crossed the finishing line in 1:54.87 ahead of compatriot Janet Jepkosgei Busienei and Morocco’s Hasna Benhassi. Jelimo set a new junior world record in that race which still stands today. 

Jepkosgei and Benhassi clocked 1:56.

    •

Pamela Jelimo

Kenyan middle-distance runner

Pamela Jelimo (born 5 December 1989) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner, specialising in the 800 metres. She won the gold medal in 800 metres at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing at the age of 18. She is the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal and also the first Kenyan to win the Golden League Jackpot. She holds both the 800 m world junior record and the senior African record over the same distance. Jelimo is also one of the youngest women to win an Olympic gold medal for Kenya.

Early life

Pamela Jelimo was born in Kiptomok village, Nandi District, Rift Valley Province.[2] Her mother, Esther Cheptoo Keter, was a promising 200 metres and 400 metresrunner, but the customs of the Nandi tribe meant that as the last-born daughter she could not marry and had to care for her parents in their old age. However, she was allowed to bear children to different men; thus, Jelimo was raised by her mother in a family of three brothers and six sisters.[3] Jelimo began running in 2003, aged 13, at Koyo Seco

Copyright ©airtory.pages.dev 2025